Local schools alert parents after serial rapist goes missing

Several local school districts stepped up their security measures Wednesday after a convicted serial rapist and sex offender recently went missing in the Utica area.

ROCCO LaDUCA

Several local school districts stepped up their security measures Wednesday after a convicted serial rapist and sex offender recently went missing in the Utica area.

Once news spread that authorities were looking for 45-year-old Robert Blainey, Utica and New Hartford schools called for a police presence outside their buildings, officials said.

The New Hartford School District also sent out an automated phone message to parents and guardians warning of the missing sex offender, while Utica school officials said they would likely do the same by Wednesday afternoon.

“We just wanted to make sure that parents knew of the situation so they could take any precautions they felt would be needed, and to assure parents that we were aware of the situation and that we were taking steps that we felt were necessary,” said New Hartford Assistant Superintendent Vincent Condro.

Among those precautions was having a police presence outside the school when students were dismissed, he said.

Blainey is a Level 3 sex offender whose last known address was on the 900 block of Rutger Street in Utica, about a half-mile away from the Roscoe Conkling and Albany elementary schools.

Blainey was first convicted of attempted rape in 1984 for forcing himself upon an 8-year-old girl. Then while on parole, he was again arrested in 1988 and convicted of raping two adult women in Madison County, according to police records.

Blainey was released from prison in 2009, but he recently went missing after failing to report in recent weeks to his parole officer with the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

The U.S. Marshals Service N.Y./N.J. Regional Fugitive Task Force is asking for the public’s help in finding Blainey, who is now listed as one of New York State’s Top 100 Most Wanted Fugitives.

Blainey is known to have friends in the Utica-Rome area, and authorities have received information that he may still be in the Utica area, marshals said.

He is described as being about 5 feet 9 inches tall, 170 pounds, with both brown eyes and hair. He also has a rose tattooed on his left shoulder, marshals said.

Blainey is considered extremely dangerous, and he should not be approached by the public. Instead, anyone who sees Blainey should call local police at the Fugitive Task Force tip-line at 315-690-1834. All calls will be kept confidential.

Considering the circumstances, the Utica school district spread its security patrols around the district’s 13 schools Wednesday.

Although Blainey has been living among the public for sometime now, New Hartford school officials said they felt news reports of Blainey’s unknown whereabouts warranted the need to alert parents.

“We would weigh the message we’re sending to balance it with the situation at hand, certainly,” Condro said. “We try to make the message appropriate to what’s going on, but we do welcome feedback from parents on how we can craft messages more carefully regarding the tone we’re looking to convey.”

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